Image Display Updating System, Server Client System and Drawing Operation Echo Back Script

1. An image display updating method for displaying an image on a screen of a WEB browser, installed into a terminal unit, in which the operator of said terminal unit operates a drawing operation using a pointing device on said screen to modify the display of the image at a cursor position by said pointing device by means of a brush tool having a density representation, the brush tool having a density representation representing a drawing tool for realizing the drawing in which the drawing density is varied according to a manner of the drawing operation of the pointing device, wherein a server holds and manages data of the image that becomes a drawing operation object for said operator and an image processing program that executes an image manipulation process on said image data in response to said drawing operation; said terminal unit and said server are set in a state mutually communicable via a network; when the WEB browser of said terminal unit makes an HTTP request for an HTML document to said server, said server returns to said terminal unit the HTML document in which a drawing operation echo back script interpretable by said WEB browser is described inside or the HTML document in, which reading said drawing operation echo back script as an external file is described as a response to said HTTP request, and the WEB browser of said terminal unit receives said HTML document and appends said drawing operation echo back script to said WEB browser; said HTML document, as a preprocessing, makes an HTTP request for said drawing operation object image held and managed by said server to said server and displays an image based on the image data received as a reply on the screen of said WEB browser; said drawing operation echo back scrip appended to the WEB browser of said terminal unit transmits to said server an XMLHTTP request with the coordinate information of the cursor position according to said drawing operation, when said drawing operation is operated on the screen where said image is displayed; the image processing program of said server executes the image manipulation process on said drawing operation object image held and managed by itself by means of the brush tool having said density representation, based on the received coordinate information of said cursor position and the information on the drawing size of the brush acquired additionally or held from the beginning; said drawing operation echo back script, after transmitting the coordinate information of said cursor position, acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including an area where the image contents are modified in said image manipulation process among a plurality of rectangular areas into which the image displayed on the screen of said WEB browser is divided and transmits one or more HTTP requests for selectively requesting the images in said one or more rectangular areas to said server; said server receives said one or more HTTP requests, and selectively returns the image data of the corresponding one or more rectangular areas in the image displayed on the screen of said WEB browser, where said image manipulation process is completed; and said WEB browser displays the images of the received image data of one or more rectangular areas in the corresponding rectangular areas on the screen of said WEB browser, instead of the images being displayed so far in said rectangular areas.

2. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein said drawing operation echo back script computes by itself and acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified in said image manipulation process.

3. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein said drawing operation echo back script acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified in said image manipulation process by receiving the computation result of the image processing program in said server.

4. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein said drawing operation echo back script transmits the information on the drawing size of said brush to said server simultaneously with the coordinate information of said cursor position.

5. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein said drawing operation echo back script transmits the information on the drawing size of said brush to said server when the operator operates a setting operation of the drawing size of the brush.

6. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein the image processing program of said server executes said image manipulation process, based on the coordinate information of said cursor position received from said terminal unit and the information on the drawing size of the brush received simultaneously with the coordinate information of said cursor position from said terminal unit or held by said, server before receiving the coordinate information of said cursor position, and returns the coordinate information of a drawing center position of the brush to be drawn or having been drawn through said image drawing process as a response to the XMLHTTP request to the WEB browser of said terminal unit, and said drawing operation echo back script computes by itself and acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified in said image manipulation process, using the coordinate information of the drawing center position of said brush received from said server and the information on the drawing size of the brush received simultaneously with the coordinate information of the drawing center position of the brush from said server or held by said drawing operation echo back script before receiving the coordinate information of the drawing center position of said brush.

7. The image display updating method according to claim 6 , wherein the coordinate information of the drawing center position of said brush is the coordinate information of said cursor position itself or the coordinate information obtained by interpolating between/among the coordinates of said cursor position using the information of the coordinates of the cursor position.

8. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein said drawing operation echo back script computes by itself and acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified in said image manipulation process, using the coordinate information of said cursor position acquired not by said server but by itself, and the information on the drawing size of the brush held by said drawing operation echo back script before acquiring the coordinate information of said cursor position.

9. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein when a drawing operation is operated for said drawing operation object image simultaneously from another terminal unit, said image processing program also executes the image manipulation process based on the drawing operation, said drawing operation echo back script periodically issues the XMLHTTP request with a timer drive, said image processing program returns the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified, which are computed by said image processing program, or the information required when the drawing operation echo back script computes said rectangular areas in said drawing operation echo back script, as a response to said XMLHTTP request, in response to the image manipulation process based on the drawing operation from said another terminal unit, said drawing operation echo back script transmits one or more HTTP requests for selectively requesting the images in one or more rectangular areas according to the information received and acquired from said server, or one or more rectangular areas according to the information computed by itself and acquired based on the information received from said server to said server, said server receives said HTTP requests, and returns selectively the image data in the corresponding one or more rectangular areas of the image displayed on the screen of said WEB browser, and said WEB browser displays the images of the received image data of one or more rectangular areas in the corresponding rectangular areas on the screen of said WEB browser, instead of the images being displayed so far in said rectangular areas.

10. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein the drawing operation object image held and managed by said server is composed of a single image file corresponding to the entire image, or a plurality of image files corresponding to a plurality of sliced images in which said entire image is actually divided into rectangles, and said rectangular area is the area of the virtual split image unit in which the image in one image file is virtually divided into plural rectangles.

11. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein the drawing operation object image held and managed by said server is composed of image files of a plurality of sliced images in which said entire image is actually divided into plural rectangles, and said rectangular area accords with the area of the sliced-image unit.

12. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein the drawing operation echo back script of said terminal unit transmits, for each XMLHTTP request, the information on a plurality of coordinate positions of said cursor position along a movement locus of the cursor with said drawing operation to said server, acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified through the entire image manipulation process based on said plurality of coordinate positions, and transmits one or more HTTP requests for selectively requesting the images in said one or more rectangular areas to said server, when said drawing operation is operated on the screen where said image is displayed.

13. A server client system for performing the image display updating method according to claim 1 .

14. A drawing operation echo back script that is a program for enabling said terminal unit to execute a process on said terminal unit for implementing the image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein said program is transmitted from said server and appended to said WEB browser on said terminal unit.

15. The image display updating method according to claim 1 , wherein the WEB browser comprises software for perusing a WEB page and said software issues the request corresponding to the HTTP request and the request corresponding to the XMLHTTP request wherein said HTTP request or said XMLTTP request is issued under the name HTTP request or the name XMLHTTP request or a different name.

16. An image display updating method for displaying an image on a screen of a WEB browser installed into a terminal unit, in which the operator of said terminal unit operates a drawing operation using a pointing device on said screen to modify the display of the image at a cursor position by said pointing device by means of a brush tool having a density representation; wherein the brush tool having a density representation means a drawing tool for realizing the drawing in which the drawing density is varied according to a manner of the drawing operation of the pointing device; a server holds and manages data of the image that becomes a drawing operation object for said operator and an image processing program that executes an image manipulation process on said image data in response to said drawing operation; said terminal unit and said server are set in a state mutually communicable via a network; when the WEB browser of said terminal unit makes an HTTP request for an HTML document to said server, said server returns to said terminal unit the HTML document in which a drawing operation echo back script interpretable by said WEB browser is described inside or the HTML document in which reading said drawing operation echo back script as an external file is described as a response to said HTTP request, and the WEB browser of said terminal unit receives said HTML document and appends said drawing operation echo back script to said WEB browser; said HTML document, as a preprocessing, makes an HTTP request for said drawing operation object image held and managed by said server to said server and displays an image based on the image data received as a reply on the screen of said WEB browser; said drawing operation echo back scrip appended to the WEB browser of said terminal unit transmits to said server an XMLHTTP with the coordinate information of the cursor position according to said drawing operation, when said drawing operation is operated on the screen where said image is displayed; the image processing program of said server executes the image manipulation process on said drawing operation object image held and managed by itself by means of the brush tool having said density representation, based on the received coordinate information of said cursor position and the information on the drawing size of the brush acquired additionally or held from the beginning; said drawing operation echo back script, after transmitting the coordinate information of said cursor position, acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including an area where the image contents are modified in said image manipulation process among a plurality of rectangular areas into which the image displayed on the screen of said WEB browser is divided and transmits one or more HTTP requests for selectively requesting the images in said one or more rectangular areas to said server; said server receives said one or more HTTP requests, and selectively returns the image data of the corresponding one or more rectangular areas in the image displayed on the screen of said WEB browser, where said image manipulation process is completed; said WEB browser displays the images of the received image data of one or more rectangular areas in the corresponding rectangular areas on the screen of said WEB browser, instead of the images being displayed so far in said rectangular areas; said WEB browser transmits the coordinate information of the cursor position with said XMLHTTP requests successively, after receiving a response to the previous XMLHTTP request, without waiting for the images subjected to manipulation process based on the coordinate information of the cursor position transmitted with the former XMLHTTP requests to be displayed on the screen of said WEB browser; and the image processing program of said server further repeats the image manipulation process for the images having undergone the image manipulation process based on the XMLHTTP request.

17. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein said drawing operation echo back script computes by itself and acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified in said image manipulation process.

18. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein said drawing operation echo back script acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified in said image manipulation process by receiving the computation result of the image processing program in said server.

19. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein said drawing operation echo back script transmits the information on the drawing size of said brush to said server simultaneously with the coordinate information of said cursor position.

20. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein said drawing operation echo back script transmits the information on the drawing size of said brush to said server when the operator operates a setting operation of the drawing size of the brush.

21. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein the image processing program of said server executes said image manipulation process, based on the coordinate information of said cursor position received from said terminal unit and the information on the drawing size of the brush received simultaneously with the coordinate information of said cursor position from said terminal unit or held by said server before receiving the coordinate information of said cursor position, and returns the coordinate information of a drawing center position of the brush to be drawn or having been drawn through said image drawing process as a response to the XMLHTTP request to the WEB browser of said terminal unit, and said drawing operation echo back script computes by itself and acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified in said image manipulation process, using the coordinate information of the drawing center position of said brush received from said server and the information on the drawing size of the brush received simultaneously with the coordinate information of the drawing center position of the brush from said server or held by said drawing operation echo back script before receiving the coordinate information of the drawing center position of said brush.

22. The image display updating method according to claim 21 , wherein the coordinate information of the drawing center position of said brush is the coordinate information of said cursor position itself or the coordinate information obtained by interpolating between/among the coordinates of said cursor position using the information of the coordinates of the cursor position.

23. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein said drawing operation echo back script computes by itself and acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified in said image manipulation process, using the coordinate information of said cursor position acquired not by said server but by itself, and the information on the drawing size of the brush held by said drawing operation echo back script before acquiring the coordinate information of said cursor position.

24. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein when a drawing operation is operated for said drawing operation object image simultaneously from another terminal unit, said image processing program also executes the image manipulation process based on the drawing operation, said drawing operation echo back script periodically issues the XMLHTTP request with a timer drive, said image processing program returns the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified, which are computed by said image processing program, or the information required when the drawing operation echo back script computes said rectangular areas in said drawing operation echo back script, as a response to said XMLHTTP request, in response to the image manipulation process based on the drawing operation from said another terminal unit, said drawing operation echo back script transmits one or more HTTP requests for selectively requesting the images in one or more rectangular areas according to the information received and acquired from said server, or one or more rectangular areas according to the information computed by itself and acquired based on the information received from said server to said server, said server receives said HTTP requests, and returns selectively the image data in the corresponding one or more rectangular areas of the image displayed on the screen of said WEB browser, and said WEB browser displays the images of the received image data of one or more rectangular areas in the corresponding rectangular areas on the screen of said WEB browser, instead of the images being displayed so far in said rectangular areas.

25. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein the drawing operation object image held and managed by said server is composed of a single image file corresponding to the entire image, or a plurality of image files corresponding to a plurality of sliced images in which said entire image is actually divided into rectangles, and said rectangular area is the area of the virtual split image unit in which the image in one image file is virtually divided into plural rectangles.

26. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein the drawing operation object image held and managed by said server is composed of image files of a plurality of sliced images in which said entire image is actually divided into plural rectangles, and, said rectangular area accords with the area of the sliced-image unit.

27. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein the drawing operation echo back script of said terminal unit transmits, for each XMLHTTP request, the information on a plurality of coordinate positions of said cursor position along a movement locus of the cursor with said drawing operation to said server, acquires the information of one or more rectangular areas including the area where the image contents are modified through the entire image manipulation process based on said plurality of coordinate positions, and transmits one or more HTTP requests for selectively requesting the images in said one or more rectangular areas to said server, when said drawing operation is operated on the screen where said image is displayed.

28. A drawing operation echo back script that is a program for enabling said terminal unit to execute a process on said terminal unit for implementing the image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein said program is transmitted from said server and appended to said WEB browser on said terminal unit.

29. The image display updating method according to claim 16 , wherein the WEB browser comprises software for perusing a WEB page, and said software issues the request corresponding to the HTTP request and the request corresponding to the XMLHTTP request wherein said HTTP request or said XMLHTTP request is issued under the name HTTP request or the name XMLHTTP request or a different name.